Several Hall County organizations are working together to try to meet the needs of hundreds of homeless people who were recently displaced by the closure of an encampment in Gainesville.
Michael Giddins with North Georgia Works joined WDUN’s “The Martha Zoller Show” Tuesday morning, Nov. 11, the day after the “Unity Project” finished its soft opening of an overnight shelter on Dorsey Street. The shelter is being held in the Set Free building across from Good News at Noon.
“We have a really large homeless encampment here off Dorsey Street called the “Flat Creek Camp” that has anywhere from 250 to 300 people in it, and that property needs to be closed down. The city has some sewage work (to do) on it,” Giddins said. “That was going to displace a lot of people, so we all kind of rallied together. North Georgia Works partnered with Good News at Noon to take control of the Set Free building…to create a resource center for those leaving those encampments.”
The Unity Project is a combined effort of various organizations and churches in the community. Giddins said the organization has already done a lot of work to make the shelter more accommodating, particularly as the previous two nights brought the first below-freezing temperatures of the season to the area…